"Treehouses: Look Who's Living in the Trees!" is on view at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center through Sept. 1.

"Treehouses: Look Who's Living in the Trees!" is on view at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center through Sept. 1.

Photo: Contributed Photo

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"Treehouses: Look Who's Living in the Trees!" is on view at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center through Sept. 1.

"Treehouses: Look Who's Living in the Trees!" is on view at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center through Sept. 1.

Photo: Contributed Photo

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"Treehouses: Look Who's Living in the Trees!" is on view at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center through Sept. 1.

"Treehouses: Look Who's Living in the Trees!" is on view at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center through Sept. 1.

Photo: Contributed Photo

Image 4 of 5

"Treehouses: Look Who's Living in the Trees!" is on view at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center through Sept. 1.

"Treehouses: Look Who's Living in the Trees!" is on view at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center through Sept. 1.

Photo: Contributed Photo

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'Treehouses' at Stamford Nature Center

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Remember that treehouse you built when you were a kid?

Cobbled together with old plywood, rope and plastic sheets, it was a place to play, explore and escape the watchful eye of your parents. And it was all yours.

Or so you may have thought.

As it turns out, you were only a visitor -- a guest of the myriad species of animals who call trees home.

Find out about your gracious former hosts in "Treehouses: Look Who's Living in the Trees!" on view at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center through Monday, Sept. 1.

Sprouting up at the galleries in the center's Bendel Mansion, the exhibition exposes visitors to the sky-kissed domain of tree-dwelling birds, mammals, insects and reptiles, many of which remain elusive to ground-dwelling inhabitants. One of the more mysterious creatures is the cute, but vicious, pine martin, a cat-sized weasel that feasts on berries, rodents and squirrels. Another is a pileated woodpecker, an animal that is often heard, but rarely seen.

"As ground dwellers, we never interact with them," said Kirsten R. Brophy, curator of collections and exhibitions at the nature center. "We could be walking below them and never know it."

The animals, all taxadermic and mounted, are nestled inside two tree house-inspired installations, complete with bright graphics presenting easy-to-digest information. The show also features several live animals: three eastern tree frogs, a species common to Connecticut, and a green tree python, a species native to Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

The exhibition weaves in interactive elements to keep you engaged. You can move from tree to tree to investigate the variety of habitats that trees provide animals. Then, you can scramble up into the crow's nest for a closer look.

Though we rarely come in contact with these creatures of the canopy, our behavior has an enormous impact on their well-being. Excessive logging, for instance, is a threat to many species. The exhibition raises this issue in a fun and subtle way vis-a-vis "an interactive touch screen panel that lets you become a logger and then tells you when you've cut down too many trees and why that's bad," Brophy said.

The reason, of course, is obvious: Tearing down a tree means tearing down an animal's home.

"The exhibition teaches about sustainability and how to be environmental stewards," Brophy said. "We want people not only to become familiar with trees and the animals, but to care about them."